Navy Yard doesn’t budge Senate’s gun politics

The Senate’s bipartisan proposal to bolster background checks for gun purchases failed in April. And if it returned to the floor today, it would fail again.

The fatal shootings of a dozen people at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday haven’t moved the political needle on gun control. There still aren’t 60 votes for the commercial background check legislation devised by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Senate leadership is loath to pursue another failed gun push.

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“We are going to move this up as quickly as we can, but we’ve got to have the votes. I hope we get them but we don’t have them now,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

In some ways it is not shocking that the killings at the military installation, less than two miles from the Capitol, are not pushing senators to flip-flop on gun legislation. The gun lobby remains powerful and Democrats still want to protect vulnerable incumbents in gun-friendly states like Arkansas, Alaska, North Carolina and Louisiana from another tough vote.

“Is there a background check issue?” said a noncommittal Mark Pryor of Arkansas, one of four Senate Democrats to oppose Manchin-Toomey and a vulnerable senator up for reelection in a conservative state. “I’ll look at the facts and I’ll weigh those.”

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who was lobbied by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and her husband, Mark Kelly, to support the background checks measure, said his vote remained unchanged. The politics on the bill in the Senate, he said, are “right where they were before.”

There’s almost a sense of resignation among senators that if Manchin-Toomey was spurred on — and failed — in the months following the fatal shootings of 26 adults and children in Newtown, Conn., then what is the impetus to move gun legislation now?

“I don’t think we can try to legislate after every mass shooting,” said Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, one of four Republicans to support Manchin-Toomey.

Still, the frustration among advocates Tuesday was palpable, particularly with Connecticut Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal. Murphy has come to the floor each week to pay homage to those killed in his state and other states by guns. He agreed with Kirk that there doesn’t seem to be any connection between gun law reform and mass shootings.

“I just don’t know how many mass shootings it’s going to take before we get serious about the issue of gun violence. It’s the same story over and over again. Are people waiting for 40 people to be killed? Is 50 enough?” Murphy asked POLITICO. “The time to get this done was April.”

Gun control advocates will keep up the pressure even if there’s little reason for them to be optimistic.

Blumenthal, Murphy, Democratic Reps. Elizabeth Esty of Connecitucut and Mike Thompson of California and the Newtown Action Alliance will hold a rally on Wednesday with mass shooting victims in Oak Creek, Wis., Newtown and Aurora, Colo., to call for Congress to take on gun laws. Mayors Against Illegal Guns, funded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, will be on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

Blumenthal said his colleagues told him they were shaken by the proximity of the Navy Yard shooting to the Capitol, parts of which were locked down for several hours on Monday in the wake of the violence. And he is urging for Manchin-Toomey and mental health legislation dealing with firearms to come back to the Senate floor, offering the Navy Yard incident as another data point in a cycle of violence.

“Every one of these tragedies strikes a chord and hopefully it will remind and reinvigorate us in this task,” Blumenthal said. “If we don’t do something about it, shame on us.”